Thursday, June 30, 2011

This morning we took the baby carseat down from the attic and put the cover on it. Ella was very very interested in helping to put it together and she has been using it as a recliner all morning. We're getting all ready little one, hear that? ; )

Monday, June 27, 2011

Hi everybody. Just hanging out here waiting on the next little McCall. Tomorrow is the due date and I am so ready. Happily, Gramma has been here since last week and we are having a great time and staying busy while we wait for her arrival. There's not too much to report other than that, but I'll let you know about the new baby as soon as possible!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Friday, June 17, 2011

This morning we got an e-mail from our contractor saying that he had filed for permits and will be having a dumpster delivered to the new house today. It is so exciting to think about things starting up there! Also, Paul and I very rarely pay for someone else to do work for us. We usually try to figure out how we can do things ourselves and save some cash. Of course we are planning to do a lot of work ourselves at the house this time too, but it is really fun to think that stuff is happening over there today and I am not doing it. : )

We are hoping to get some tax refunds for what we're doing to the house since it's in a historic district. This requires a lot of before pictures, which are fun to post anyway. They kind of look better with nice, shiny, "after" pictures right beside them, but oh well. I will let you experience a little of the ohmygoodnesswehavealottodo factor we are feeling.

This is the fireplace where the water came down the chimney from an ill-conceived plumbing project upstairs undertaken by previous owners, who refused to turn any heat on all winter and let a pipe burst.

more drywall damage from pipe incident:

cool old firplace in need of some spiffing up (there are fireplaces in almost every room! but only possibly one is functional):

the kitchen, or lack thereof, our first major project:

holy murals batman!:

big beautiful staircase:

the ill-conceived plumbing project (yes this is a bedroom with a toilet and half shower installed. yes there is a section of pipe running into the doorway. yes they did not finish this at all, but did hang up a very pretty towel rack.):

another bathroom that was pretty much entirely wrecked (i think i can count 4-5 layers of wall visible):

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Well, here it is folks! Our new house! It seems like I've been waiting so long to be able to say that! But we finally closed yesterday. And then got a call from the realtor saying that the deed was unable to be written and filed yesterday so we should not go to the house yet for liability reasons . . . ARGH! Today it was written though, and we went. : ) We took a few pictures, pulled down a few cobwebs and thought, ohmygoodnesswehavealottodo.

Ella was unfazed by the work prospect. Duct tape in hand, she was ready to go.

On second thought, Dad maybe you should get started . . .

On third thought, nevermind, let's just enjoy the porch.

Don't worry, you will soon be drowning in photos of the inside and the work going on, I suspect. But for now, let's just all enjoy the porch.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Well it's been another hot and very busy week for us. It was filled with lots of real estate drama and a big milestone for me--turning 30. Also we are waiting for baby #2's arrival any time now and trying to guess how soon it will be. This is that crazy stage where it could happen in hours or in a month. Hard to plan. But due to so many of our other life variables right now, I sort of feel like, why bother planning anyway?

I don't have any new photos to share tonight, but I did want to pop in for an update since poor bloggie has been a bit neglected this week. Most of what I have to share is about my birthday, but of our 3 main topics for this post, it's the only one that is in the past, so . . .

Here is something I wanted to write about last night in the midst of my birthday festivities, but of course, didn't, since I was in the midst of them and not at a computer (how boring would that have been?). Have you ever imagined what your perfect day would be like? I have. I took a while to think about it a couple months ago and love to imagine how I could make it happen at some point. Here it is: wake up in a beautiful room overlooking the ocean, have leisurely breakfast of pastries and coffee alone with something good to read, meet up with some ladies for a shopping trip to pick out a fantastic outfit for the evening, have a nice lunch out, short nap, dance workout class, shower, pampering like nails and hair and makeup done, get dressed and go out to a nice dinner with lots of friends and family, listen to live music under the stars, head home with my hubby. Doesn't that sound fun? What would yours be? I was reminded of this yesterday in the midst of the birthday festivities because my 30th birthday had a lot of the characteristics of the perfect day. Enough were missing that I still have something to look forward to, but I did get to eat a bagel and coffee for breakfast, go shopping, get my nails done, listen to live music under a non-raining thundercloud, and have a very nice dinner. It was a good day. Also not on the imaginary perfect day list, but fun add-ons yesterday were: go out for frozen yogurt treat with sweet little daughter and happen upon a pretty good craft show.

The other great thing about my birthday was that now I don't have to worry about turning 30 any more. It actually feels really good to be 30. My mom told me she liked turning 30 because it made her feel like she finally had some credibility. I totally get that. Y'all, I am a substantial grown up now. My friend Annie sent me a quote on my 21st birthday that also sticks with me. I can't remember it exactly, but the idea was that when you get older, you don't lose all the other ages that came before. You still are your 5 year old self, 13 year old self, 24 year old self etc, but you add more to who you are too. I love that thought and I think it's absolutely right. So thanks Mom and Annie for helping me interpret my birthday! : )

So there you have some debriefing of one of the week's big events. As for when the baby will arrive and how our transition to a new downtown house will play out, those have been more difficult to nail down, but I will keep you posted.

Friday, June 03, 2011

Today I took some pictures of the maternity top I made to put it up in my etsy shop. Since I have the photos, I figured I would post this profile shot, despite my total inability to make a normal face in a self portrait, because I am now REALLY pregnant. I am past the 36 week mark guys! It could be any day now. I feel like I haven't devoted as much energy (or anxiety!) to this pregnancy as the first one, probably because the results of the first one are keeping me so busy! But let's document here that I definitely look like a pregnant lady this time around too.

I am getting really excited to meet our new little one as the time gets closer. When I think about what Ella means to me now versus what my fuzzy notions of "a baby" were before she was born, I suspect that I am in for a profound treat and life shakeup again. But it still seems so hard to conceptualize a real precious little human as the reason for my beach ball belly. Nothing like giving birth to do that for you though! And it won't be long now!